Design your Future

UXNight: The Blockchain

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies are drastically transforming our economy and making it easier to anonymize purchases and improve the security of technology.

For this UXNight, we'll teach you all about the different types of Blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, and more. We'll also talk about tokens, security laws, utility vs. security, raising money, and examine the value of data.

Disclaimer: The information at this event is not intended as financial advice, and is for informational purposes only. Andi Galpern (The Producer) + Cascade SF (The Production Company) is an investor in cryptocurrency and does not provide provide legal, investment, tax, etc advice.

Schedule:

“How Blockchain Works: An Overview and History” with Sloane Brakeville, Founder of FR8 and Former IBM Blockchain Specialist

"How Blockchain Works"

with Sloane Brakeville, Founder of FR8

Formerly Blockchain Specialist at IBM

PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES

Before diving into blockchain systems design, it's important to have a grasp of how money and contracts work, historically speaking. In this presentation, Sloane Brakeville will teach you how currency is established, how money works, basic terminology relating to the blockchain, about contracts, securities, and then we'll hand the mic over to Nisa to teach everyone about Ethereum.

"Designing Decentralized Applications"

For this UXNight, designer Nisa Andrews will teach us about Ethereum, how blockchain works, and she'll show us the difference in systems architecture when designing for a blockchain app. Nisa will also showcase case studies of Decentralized Apps she's worked on including WeTrust.

You'll learn about terms like distributed ledgers, initial coin offerings, how companies are raising millions of dollars in seconds, and the token system. You'll also learn how this new system design works in the favor of individuals instead of corporations.

Meet Connie Yang, Design Director at Coinbase

FIRESIDE CHAT

In April 2017, Connie joined Coinbase as Design Director with very little cryptocurrency experience - but she learned a lot and she caught on fast. Her experience designing for games and for Facebook for 4.5 years translated well.

In this fireside chat, we’ll talk with Connie about:

Her role as a Design Director at Coinbase and what types of projects she works on

Her design team and their responsibilities

Their design process and the skills you need to work in FinTech

How UX skills translate to various markets and that you don’t have to be an expert – you just need to be open to learning.

Open Q&A

An Overview of Regulations, ICOs, Tokens, and the Decentralized World

with Michael Zargham, PhD and Founder of Blockscience

PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES

Michael Zargham, PhD & Founder of BlockScience, specializes in writing and reviewing technical white papers for blockchain startups. He'll teach us basic terminology and what goes into writing a whitepaper, the difference between securities and utilities, and also basic blockchain terminology so that everyone speaks the same language. You'll also learn about:

Blockchain as a technology

ICOs and Tokenization

Decentralized software vs. decentralized business models

White paper vs. technical white papers

Regulatory considerations

Utility tokens

Security tokens

The anatomy of a blockchain-enabled application, which includes smart contracts, trust, data collection, and usability.

Open Q&A

Speaker Bios (In Order of Appearance)

Sloane Brakeville, Founder of FR8Former Blockchain Specialist at IBM

Sloane Brakeville is currently at Fr8, a company building solutions for the freight industry on the blockchain. Previously he was a blockchain specialist at IBM, working with Fortune 500 companies to educate and build on blockchain opportunities in their industries.

Nisa Andrews, Product Designer at UberDecentralized apps Designer

Nisa Andrews is a Product Designer at Uber and an Independent dApp Designer. She has worked on a few projects in the blockchain space: redesigned WeTrust’s Trusted Lending Circles beta dApp, a tool that helps people build and access credit within a trusted group; designed ICOStat’s logo and Comparison tool, a site where you can track the ROI of ICOs which was recently acquired by CoinCircle; designed payETHforward, a non-profit DAO. She is passionate about making blockchain technology accessible and usable for all people.

Connie Yang, Design Director at Coinbase

Connie Yang is the Design Director at Coinbase, a secure platform for buying, selling, trading and securing cryptocurrencies. Prior to Coinbase, she worked at Facebook as a Product Designer for Growth & Emerging Markets.

Before Facebook, Connie was the UI Director at a startup in San Francisco, focusing on mobile application UI. She specialized in the game industry, and focused on social and mobile games. She has hired, directed, and built 3 design teams from scratch at different companies.

Michael Zargham, PhD, Founder and CEO of BlockScience

Michael Zargham, aka "Zargham", is the Founder and CEO of BlockScience, a research and analytics firm focused on socio-technical networks and economic systems engineering. BlockScience supports projects in domains from Advertising to Education to Supply Chains. His professional experience includes architecting data and decision systems, and data science team building for Cross Media Works; he holds a PhD in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on decentralized algorithms, coordinated decision making and emergent properties in networks.

Sponsored By:

Cloudflare uses CDN technology to speed up and secure any web site. They are hiring for multiple positions including Product Designers, UX Researchers, Data Scientists and more. Visit cloudflare.com/careers to view and apply for open positions.

FAQs

What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?

There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco